…the average cost of a healthcare data breach is $408 per record, compared to a $206 per record for a financial services data breach.

Based on the report’s findings, Freedman believes the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will drive up the costs of breaches even further.

According to the report… rushing to notify individuals of an incident before all of the facts have been obtained increases the cost of a data breach by almost $5 per record. With the new GDPR 72 hour breach notification, companies should be aware of the increase cost associated with issuing notices before all of the facts are known, which is likely to be the case if notifications are issued within 72 hours.

While we tend to think of these types of crimes as technology related, Freedman claims most of these breaches, “might have been prevented through greater employee security awareness.”